Check your shit fuckers.....
So last Tuesday I was busting my hump to get a pair of manifolds cut and got clocked. I was facing a 5"d x 5"l solid hunk of 6061 aluminum in the lathe, a procedure I've done countless times before with no drama. This time though 'something' happened and the work piece ejected from the chuck spinning 6000rpm, pinched between the tool/tool-post and the still turning chuck then hit me in the left cheek just below my eye.
The only thing I can come up with is that perhaps I didn't have the chuck tightened quite enough and may have bumped the main saddle wheel effectively digging the cutter in(normally facing is a spare, skimming cut), allowing the material to be pulled out of seat.
Dad happened to be leaning on the wall bending my ear (that happens a lot) and saw the whole thing.....apparently it was fairly impressive to see my 265lb self lifted off my feet. Said is sounded like two pieces of wet firewood being slammed together. I don't remember much pain and I didn't go out or even fall though as I say, my feet did leave the ground. Lots of blood though....
Got pretty lucky as far as point of impact is concerned too and now am my own evil twin. I walked myself to the bathroom to have a look and decided I should probably go into the ER as I could see my teeth thru my face. The edge hit me pretty square on the point of the cheekbone, sliced thru the flesh of my cheek and gum, smashed into the root of my upper fang....err...k9(?) and essentially shaved a half moon piece of bone off my skull.
That's a little disconcerting as you can probably imagine.
30 stitches total according to the paperwork; 3 for the gum and 6 for the inside of my mouth, another 7 internal and 14 outside. Add in a root canal for giggles along with looking like I tried to gnaw the blades off a running food processor and it's been an interesting week and a half. If it have been 1/2" higher or lower I'd have lost my teeth or my eye, though I was wearing safety glasses they shattered and woulda done no good.
Check your shit, make sure things are setup as they need to be. I should have checked better.
(sorry for the babble, pain killers do wacky things to me)
So last Tuesday I was busting my hump to get a pair of manifolds cut and got clocked. I was facing a 5"d x 5"l solid hunk of 6061 aluminum in the lathe, a procedure I've done countless times before with no drama. This time though 'something' happened and the work piece ejected from the chuck spinning 6000rpm, pinched between the tool/tool-post and the still turning chuck then hit me in the left cheek just below my eye.
The only thing I can come up with is that perhaps I didn't have the chuck tightened quite enough and may have bumped the main saddle wheel effectively digging the cutter in(normally facing is a spare, skimming cut), allowing the material to be pulled out of seat.
Dad happened to be leaning on the wall bending my ear (that happens a lot) and saw the whole thing.....apparently it was fairly impressive to see my 265lb self lifted off my feet. Said is sounded like two pieces of wet firewood being slammed together. I don't remember much pain and I didn't go out or even fall though as I say, my feet did leave the ground. Lots of blood though....
Got pretty lucky as far as point of impact is concerned too and now am my own evil twin. I walked myself to the bathroom to have a look and decided I should probably go into the ER as I could see my teeth thru my face. The edge hit me pretty square on the point of the cheekbone, sliced thru the flesh of my cheek and gum, smashed into the root of my upper fang....err...k9(?) and essentially shaved a half moon piece of bone off my skull.
That's a little disconcerting as you can probably imagine.
30 stitches total according to the paperwork; 3 for the gum and 6 for the inside of my mouth, another 7 internal and 14 outside. Add in a root canal for giggles along with looking like I tried to gnaw the blades off a running food processor and it's been an interesting week and a half. If it have been 1/2" higher or lower I'd have lost my teeth or my eye, though I was wearing safety glasses they shattered and woulda done no good.
Check your shit, make sure things are setup as they need to be. I should have checked better.
(sorry for the babble, pain killers do wacky things to me)
